This invention discloses a mechanical means of separating poultry meat from bone, wherein the separation is accomplished by centrifugal force alone, without the need for numerous and substantial preparatory steps.
The use of centrifugal force in the food processing art has been known in the prior art, in several forms, for some time. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,017,661 to W. A. Zartman discloses the use of centrifugal force as an aid in delivering fragments of meat and bone after they have been separated by conventional impact methods. Note also that devices of the type taught by Zartman involve a wet process with meat and bone fragments floating in a container of water.
One means by which centrifugal force incidentally aids in the actual separation of meat from bone is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,748,385 to J. J. Kaplan. Kaplan discloses a carcass axially mounted on a rod. Rotational motion is imparted to the carcass by high-velocity fluid jets. The meat separates from the skeleton due to the combined effects of the impact force of the fluid jets and whatever centrifugal forces are developed from the spinning. Note, however, that centrifugal force plays only a partial role in this separation apparatus. Much of the separation is due to impact. Also, this process still involves wet components.
Although centrifugal force has been used in preparing poultry in the past, the devices disclosed in the prior art very often require substantial preparation of the carcass before processing. Some devices require that the carcass be cooked prior to separation. Other devices, although they use centrifugal force to a limited extent, rely principally on various types of cutting edges, and the like, to achieve the actual separation of the meat.
As mentioned above, many of the processes known in the prior art are wet processes. The use of water creates its own problems. When water is used, valuable protein and fat tend to be washed away, and some of the nutritional value of the meat is thereby lost. Also, applicable processing standards set a limit on the amount of moisture that meat may contain, and if too much water is absorbed by a piece of meat, it is necessary to employ some means to remove that water. This often requires the use of an oven or a blower, or even a blast freezer, to dry the meat sufficiently.